I Will Follow – Bono Answers The President’s Call

President Higgins has made the call for all Irish people to celebrate an evening of Irish culture with him on the 17^th of March. As part of the Gathering 2013, Glaoch will be broadcast on RTE.ie at 9.30pm on St. Patrick’s Day and will be repeated the following night.

At the President’s invitation, a special seisiún was filmed at Áras an Uachtaráin last month with some of Ireland’s best musicians, artists, actors and writers. We think this may have been very difficult to film and that no one had any fun at all... Apologies, we are only jealous we didn't get invited to this party.

The programme is aimed towards the Irish abroad  and will be broadcast on the RTE website, RTE News Now and RTE YouTube. The following night, Glaoch will be repeated on RTE's television channels and Radio 1.

Seamus Heaney in conversation with President Higgins

The programme will feature interviews with U2 frontman Bono, poet Seamus Heaney, Druid Theatre’s Garry Hynes, playwright Tom Murphy and Christy Moore. There will also be music performances from Glen Hansard, Lisa Hannigan, Martin Hayes, Imelda May, Christy Moore and The Script among others. 

Imelda May brings her charms to Glaoch

Speaking about the event, President Higgins told the Irish Independent: “I hope the programme will encourage Irish people everywhere to engage with the valuable resource that is our culture, to look to our creative possibilities and to project our Irishness into the world in the positive way that has been the achievement of our artists and cultural workers.”

The Script perform an acoustic set for the President

On the other hand, we think President Higgins might have used Paddy's Day for a right knees up. It took four days to film... Four days...